‘This is how we saved £25,000 on our extension — it never would have been affordable otherwise'

Media room with large electric fireplace, Samsung TV, large sofa, accent chair and buttoned footstool.

A family media room has always been on my home must-have list, so when we moved into our 1960s detached house in Worcestershire four years ago, I set about working out how to create one. The front of the house had an ugly car port that was too narrow for a modern car, so I drew up plans to create an infill extension. I took my time trawling through living room ideas before coming up with a plan that we could achieve on our budget.

We financed the project through a loan and knew the maximum we could spend, including all furniture, tech and finishing touches, was £30,000. Considering how much an extension costs in the UK (around £2,000 per m2), and our finished room would be 27.5m2 – our calculations meant it should cost closer to £55,000 for the build alone. But using a combination of savvy planning and DIY, we managed to bring it in on budget.